Good News from Brazil: Lula Defeats Bolsonaro

[Sukla Sen]

One good news in the midst of overall gloom.

A Bolsonaro victory, apart from other things, would have posed a serious threat to the residual Amazon forests and thereby  our chances to avoid a global climate catastrophe.

There are reports of some tampering with the voting process by the Bolsonaro administration.

The margin of defeat is quite narrow -- considerably narrower than predicted. 

One only hopes that the transfer of power would take place without any major hiccup.

<<Far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro is defeated by left-wing ex-President Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva in the deciding round of Brazil’s presidential vote

Lula won 50.8% of all valid votes to nearly 49.2% for Bolsonaro

Lula, president from 2003 to 2010, sought a political comeback after being embroiled in several corruption scandals

Bolsonaro's critics accused him of mishandling the Covid pandemic and allowing rampant deforestation in the Amazon

The two candidates are polar opposites; Lula is a left-wing former trade union leader and Bolsonaro is a right-wing populist and former army captain

Political tensions were high in the run-up to the vote, with accusations and misinformation on both sides of the campaign trail>>

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-latin-america-63407865

[Sukla Sen]

So, defeating a radical righwinger opponent in the poll is only a part of the job.

Maybe the more difficult part still awaits.

The saving grace, however, is that the judiciary has till now displayed a reasonably strong spine and also moral uprightness. (Quite unlike the Indian scenario.)

But, is that enough to deter the military?

We really don't know.

Of course, that Biden has pretty promptly congratulated Lula on his winning a "free and fair" election is likely to have some effects on the Brazilian military and, also, other sections of the power elites.

Lula, perhaps, needs also to mobilise a fraction of his huge number of backers on the streets?

That may, however, tum things even messier and truly chaotic.

That's what Lula would, in all likelihood, like to dodge?

Bolsonaro himself is, of course, yet to show his hands.

Let's keep watching and wait for January 1st.

<<The populist rightwinger has yet to concede the election since the unprecedentedly close result was announced Sunday, with leftist former president Lula winning by just 1.8 percentage points. With fears mounting that Bolsonaro could take a leaf from the playbook of his close ally, Donald Trump, and refuse to accept the result, truckers loyal to the incumbent have taken matters into their own hands.

Roadblocks and protests demanding a military coup to stop Lula being certified as president have erupted in all but two Brazilian states, according to reports. Brazil’s federal highway police said over 300 protests had partially or completely shut down roads around the country, while authorities in the capital Brasilia closed traffic access to the central government esplanade amid fears that Bolsonaro’s supporters were planning to stage a demonstration in front of the Supreme Court, which they perceive as having given Lula favorable treatment.>>

(Excerpted from: <https://www.thedailybeast.com/bolsonaro-plays-trump-card-in-brazil-and-wont-concede-as-fans-block-roads>.)